Bright and Dark Solitons on the Surface of Finite-Depth Fluid Below the Modulation Instability Threshold

Abstract

We use the high-order nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation (NLSE) derived to model the evolution of slowly modulated wave trains with narrow spectrum on the surface of ideal finite-depth fluid. This equation is the finite-depth counterpart of celebrated Dysthe's equation, which is usually used for the same purpose in the case of infinite depth. We demonstrate that this generalized equation admits bright soliton solutions for depths below the modulation instability threshold $kh\approx 1.363$ ($k$ being the carrier wave number and $h$ the undisturbed fluid depth), which is not possible in the case of standard NLSE. These bright solitons can exist along with the dark solitons that have recently been observed in a water wave tank [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 124101 (2013)].